Arlen Specter

Arlen Specter (12 February 1930-14 October 2012) was a member of the US Senate from Pennsylvania (R, later D) from 3 January 1981 to 3 January 2011, succeeding Dick Schweiker and preceding Pat Toomey.

Biography
Arlen Specter was born in Wichita, Kansas on 12 February 1930 to Russian-Jewish immigrant parents. He graduated from the University of Pennsylvania and served in the US Air Force during the Korean War; after the war, he proceeded to graduate from Yale Law School. He opened a law firm with Marvin Katz, who would later become a federal judge. Specter became an assistant counsel for the Warren Commission, which investigated John F. Kennedy's assassination, and he helped devise the "single-bullet theory". From 1965 to 1973, he served as District Attorney of Philadelphia, and he was elected to the US Senate in 1981. Specter switched his political affiliation from the Democratic Party to the Republican Party in 1965, and he belonged to the moderate wing of the GOP. In 2005, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma, and John E. Sununu shaved his head in solidarity with Specter, who underwent chemotherapy to treat his illness. Specter returned to the Democrats in 2009, and Joe Sestak beat him in the Democratic primary during the 2010 senatorial race in Pennsylvania. He died two years later at the age of 82.